The Justice Department shields the agents who killed Alex Pretti

By Alma Cordero · Reporting from El Paso · October 28, 2026

Michael and Susan Pretti demand answers after federal agents killed their son in Minneapolis, exposing a Department of Justice determined to hide evidence and shield its own.

A grieving family meets a wall of silence

Michael and Susan Pretti have lived in the dark. Their son, Alex Pretti, was an ICU nurse, an athlete, and a United States citizen. He treated war veterans at a Minneapolis hospital. On January 24, 2026, federal immigration agents operating under "Operation Metro Surge" shot him dead in the street. As reported by NBC News and The Guardian, the parents held a press conference on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, to break their silence. They demanded that the Department of Justice release withheld evidence. They ask for simple decency and basic accountability from a government that has treated them with calculated cruelty.

The official narrative spun by the state on television was a fabricated smear. Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller rushed to public airwaves. They branded Alex Pretti as an armed domestic terrorist and an assassin who tried to murder federal agents. These claims were lies designed to cover up a killing. As documented by CNN and El País, bystander video proved that Pretti held a cellphone in his hand. He had a valid permit to carry a firearm and no criminal record, but he did not brandish a weapon or attack agents. Video footage shows him trying to intervene in a scuffle and getting pepper-sprayed in the face. Multiple agents then shot him in the back while he lay face-down on the ground. No one from the federal government called Michael and Susan Pretti on that horrible day to report their son's execution. Instead, as Michael Pretti stated, federal officials went on television to slander his memory.

Federal stonewalling and the ghost of the Rodney King tape

The Department of Justice is actively working to shield the men who killed Alex Pretti. Over the summer, the Pretti family sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche. They requested the identities of the officers involved and the return of their son’s personal property. The DOJ responded with bureaucratic stonewalling through spokesperson Kiersten Pels. She stated that communications with victims' families "do not typically occur" during an investigation, happening only at later stages such as indictment or trial. This mirrors the tragic mechanics of the Rodney King beating. Bystander video exposed the raw, brutal gap between official police accounts and the violent reality of state power. George Holliday's footage of an unarmed Rodney King being beaten by the LAPD cast a spotlight on state violence. In the same way, street videos of Alex Pretti's final moments demolished the DHS fairy tale of self-defense. In both cases, video evidence forced an unyielding spotlight onto police brutality. In both cases, the institutions responsible scrambled to hide the file.

The suppression of evidence extends directly to local investigators trying to prosecute the case. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has had to fight the federal government every step of the way. According to reports from NBC News and CNN, Moriarty’s office sued the Trump administration in March. The lawsuit sought to compel the sharing of evidence regarding the fatal ICE shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. The federal government began turning over body camera video and hard drives in July. But court records show the DOJ subsequently stopped sharing critical information, including access to the weapons. DOJ attorneys filed a motion in federal court to block the release. They argued that federal officials have no obligation to share information with state authorities, claiming local prosecutors lack jurisdiction over federal officers. Attorney Steven L. Schleicher, representing the Prettis, asked how the DOJ can justify keeping these files locked away. He noted that the family is entitled to evidence under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. This echoes the systematic withholding of evidence seen during the death of Laquan McDonald, where police dashcam video was kept from the public for over a year to shield officers. Here, the federal government is weaponizing bureaucratic delay to protect its own.

The machinery of impunity must be dismantled

The Trump administration deployed more than 3,000 immigration officers to Minnesota in January for Operation Metro Surge. The operation turned the state into an interior enforcement zone. The federal government even banned state investigators from the scene of Pretti's shooting. Local agents gained entry only the following day through a court order. This is not normal, and it is not justice. It is an organized protection racket run from Washington. Attorney General Todd Blanche defends a system that keeps grieving parents in the dark while shielding agents from criminal inquiry. The system treats human lives as disposable collateral damage. Federal lawyers hide behind jurisdictional pretexts to run out the clock.

The federal district court must grant Mary Moriarty’s motion for summary judgment. The court must compel the Department of Justice to hand over the complete investigative file, ballistics evidence, and officer identities. Federal prosecutors must not be allowed to quietly close their internal review without charges while stonewalling a family that has suffered state-sanctioned agony. Michael and Susan Pretti deserve full transparency and the return of their son's belongings. They deserve a complete accounting of the officers who fired into a man lying face-down on the asphalt. The Department of Justice must stop lying, stop hiding, and release the evidence immediately.

The Justice Department shields the agents who killed Alex Pretti

A grieving family meets a wall of silence

Federal stonewalling and the ghost of the Rodney King tape

The machinery of impunity must be dismantled

Sources